How European Jews Are Building a Future and Standing Up to anti-Semitism, Not Running Away

Is it time for the Jews to leave Europe? Since the Paris and Copenhagen terror attacks, many have asked that question. Haaretz's Anshel Pfeffer traveled the continent to ask European Jews themselves. He found vibrant and engaged communities largely unafraid to be openly Jewish, and who aren't going anywhere.

'The Cossacks aren't coming' - a series of dispatches from Jewish communities across Europe - was born from a feeling that the true story of Jewish life in Europe is not being told.

It is obscured in both Israeli and international media due to a, perhaps understandable, focus on terror attacks and perception of a rising tide of anti-Semitism washing over the continent. The narrative which has emerged in recent years, to an increasing degree since last summer's conflict in Gaza and in the wake of the Paris killings in January, has been one of fearful and endangered Jews on the brink of tragedy - that can only be averted by mass emigration to safer shores.

Much of the reporting on European Jewry in recent months has been tinged with disbelief: Who are these foolhardy Jews that have failed to learn the lesson of the Holocaust and are once again ignoring the coming storm in this cursed continent?

It fails to take into account that for a million and a half Jews across Europe, this is home. They are part of the social fabric and national identity of the countries where they were born and continue choosing to live their lives. While thousands of communities were wiped out in the Holocaust and many others have since drastically dwindled in numbers, Jews still live openly throughout Europe, both carrying on traditions and creatively innovating new and fascinating Jewish experiences.

Very little of this has been reported, and the complex challenges the Jews do face, are routinely reduced to the simplistic formulations of physical threat from the new Islamization and a resurgence of old anti-Semitism. Most of the coverage has also disregarded how in the wider upheaval occurring now in Europe, the Jews are not victims of change, but also have a key role to play in the continent’s future.

Ten features cannot provide a broad picture of such a wide range of communities, each facing its own particular set of circumstances and carving out a unique place in wider national identities. It is intended to present a series of snapshots, illustrating how the Jews of Europe are not only responding to tragedy and intimidation, but also busy building a future. In addition to my research in five countries, chosen to give a cross-section of regions and Jewish populations of different size and temperament, the insights are informed by my reporting for Haaretz over the last eight years from all the major Jewish communities in Europe and many of the smaller ones as well.

The Jewish cemetary in Krakow. Credit: Moshe Gilad

It is an attempt at a clear-eyed appraisal of the dangers facing Europe’s Jews but also an optimistic view of their future; which is why my journey began down the road from Auschwitz, at the bright and new Jewish Community Center in Krakow.

Hungary still has difficulty dealing with its collaboration with the Nazis and the anti-Semitic Jobbick Party isn’t making that any easier. The Jews, however, are still more worried by an illiberal government than to threats aimed at them.

For Jews in Europe, moving to Israel has never been easier. But while most love and embrace the Jewish state, they refuse to abandon the communities they have fought to build and where they feel most at home.